Forecast provides a ready-to-use Excel-based solution for completing each project forecasting cycle. Forecast automatically prepares formatted Excel workbooks containing your current project values, data-entry columns for recording status, and formulas that calculate projections and over/under. This lets project managers complete their cost-to-complete, cost-at-completion, or percent-complete analysis in the comfortable environment of Excel. When finished, forecasted values can be read by Forecast and written back to specific places in your Sage Timberline Office database for further reporting.
Forecasting Solutions
A set of eleven pre-built templates are furnished with Forecast to help you get started. In addition, over two-hundred other pre-built templates are available to select from. Just identify the template that best meets your needs by answering a handful of questions (provided in the Forecast template guide included with the software). A variety of methods for forecasting are supported:
- Cost To Complete
- Cost At Completion
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- Percent Complete
- Units In Place
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- Expected Changes
- Productivity Values
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The Forecast Cycle
- Forecast queries information from Sage Timberline Office and creates or refreshes the forecast workbook for each job. Information on the worksheet that the user is not allowed to change can be protected and locked automatically as part of this step.
- Project Managers are notified that their workbooks are ready, or they can be sent their workbooks via Forecast’s email feature.
- Project Managers work in Excel to complete their analysis by entering values for Cost To Complete, Cost At Completion, Percent Complete, or Units In Place. No access to Sage Timberline Office is needed.
- When the workbooks have been updated, designated values from the report can be saved in Sage Timberline Office for use with Inquiries and Reports.
Features
| Feature |
Description |
| Forecast Manager |
This is an application that allows you to manage any number of Forecast workbooks. Refresh, Protect, Send, Unprotect, and Post any number of workbooks as a single batch. |
| Detached Operation |
Create a new Excel workbook using Forecast, retrieve current values from Job Cost, and send the workbook to Project Managers. |
| Interactive Formula Recalculations |
As values are entered, other columns are recalculated in real-time. |
| Security |
Because the workbook is a separate file and represents only one job, control can be easily maintained over the jobs that each Project Manager has access to. |
| Subtotals |
Subtotals and grand totals are provided for immediate analysis of the bottom line impact of forecasts. |
| Values can be saved in Sage Timberline Office |
ODBC writeable fields in Sage Timberline Office can be updated using information from the Forecast workbook. |
| Formula results can be saved in Sage Timberline Office |
The calculated results from formula-based columns can also be saved in Sage Timberline Office ODBC writeable fields. |
| Ability to include Job, Extra, Cost Code, and Category fields |
Any data field from the Sage Timberline Office Job Extra, Cost Code or Category Records can be included as columns. |
| Required Software |
Support Versions |
| Microsoft Windows |
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Windows 2008 Server, 32-bit or 64-bit.
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Windows 7, 32-bit or 64-bit.
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Windows Vista, 32-bit or 64-bit.
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Windows 2003 Server, 32-bit or 64-bit.
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Windows XP.
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Windows 2000 with Service Pack 4.
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| Microsoft Office |
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| Application Software |
- Sage Timberline Office 8.0 through 9.8 (requires Job Cost)
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